In 1568 William of Orange-Nassau, called the "Silent", started a resistance movement in the Netherlands against the increasingly bloody oppression and heretical persecution by Phillip II. Meanwhile, at the Escorial, that royal, austere abbey-palace-mausoleum of the Spanish Habsburgians, the arts were flourishing. Composers took the opportunity to experiment with program music. In the works on this disc, we can hear the representation of military power on both sides.